The ionization loss of fast cosmic ray μ-mesons at ground level

This thesis describes the use of proportional counters in conjunction with the Durham High Energy Cosmic Ray Spectrograph to measure the most probable ionization energy loss of relatioistic μ-mesons in a neon methane mixture. The experiment was initiated by D.G. Jones who constructed most of the equipment and obtained the initial results. The authors task was to examine the theoretical work in this field and relate it to the experiment and also to continue with the experimental work with a view to determining the optimum conditions for such an experiment. In the course of this investigation additional results were obtained, which together with those of Jones give an accurate measurement of the variation- of ionization energy loss with the total energy of the u meson in the range from below 1 Gev to above 10 Gev. This work was carried out at the Physics Department of the Durham Colleges in the University of Durham under the supervision of Dr. A.W. Wolfendale during the year 1959-60.